Rejection
by FreyrDecibel
Summary: It is found that in terrible situations, the most desperate of trials, one can come to the point where they believe that it would be better to reject reality than to face the current situation. In a world where metal dragon men and beings with the ability to level cities roam the earth, what happens when this phenomenon can become weaponized?


It was cold.

That was the first thing they noticed as they tried to take in their surroundings. It was dark, which made sense as they surveyed the partly cloudy sky which tried in vain to conceal a full moon that glowed with unusually bright light.

Then it hit them.

Or rather, it didn't. Nothing hit the figure's mind as anything familiar as they lay on the crumbling brick wall of an abandoned building, nothing familiar whatsoever. Even worse, they couldn't remember things unrelated. What day it was, their current location, even important things such as their own family. They shook their head back in forth, trying in vain to somehow clear their head. No way something so cliched as amnesia could happen like this.

Feeling the slightest bit dizzy from all the shaking, they slowly stood up on unsteady legs, trying to get a bearing for their own surroundings. Their movements felt slow and uncoordinated, as though their limbs hadn't always been this length, or the weight distribution had been different before. Had it? They had no way to tell.

Looking down at themselves, they found that they were wearing a rather grubby looking black sweatshirt along with a simple pair of blue jeans. However, one of the more significant things they learned from this, along with the fact that they had nothing on them at the moment, was their gender. The slight bump around their chest area said enough.

Glad that she was no longer an it, she attempted to glean something from her surroundings. They were rather dingy looking, with nobody out and about at the moment which made sense due to the apparent state of night. Despite this, the air was almost thick with danger, as though something evil and oppressive might jump out at her if she were to stay too long. Shaking this feeling off of her, she began to walk.

Despite her intentions of finding some sort of bearings she found herself hopelessly lost among crumbling apartment buildings and graffitied warehouses, trying her best to fit in and hopelessly failing. The only others she saw as she made her way across the unknown area were the occasional drunks stuck in a midnight stupor and what she was almost certain were those who worked in the sex trade, based on their rather revealing outfits or the way they seemed to be chatting up the aforementioned drunks in attempts to drain their wallets dry. Ah well, best to not get involved.

Unfortunately for her, this peace was not to last.

A roar, human yet not at the same time,sounded out the darkness. What could it possibly be? Domestic Violence gone extreme? A turf war perhaps? As though to answer her, a sudden explosion rocked the area and almost blew her off her own feet a few blocks away. Even worse, a gang fight.

Looking left and right desperately for some way out she found an abandoned building off to the side, door kicked open long ago if the broken hinges suggested anything. Diving in as quick as she could she covered her ears as the sound of gunfire and that same roaring filled the air. This was totally insane. No way that she could be dropped into this so soon after waking up to this whole predicament.

Yet the smoke validated her situation, the same way that the growing glow of fire did as well. Braving a glance, she looked out the window and stared in astonishment.

Not less than fifteen feet away from her, a tall, heavily tattooed man-creature stood in an intimidating stance opposite what was almost the comical stereotype of a gang, mostly made up of african american and hispanic males all armed with what had to be some sort of high end firearm, some also having knives strapped to their belts as well. Despite this, they all had looks that conveyed both anger and fear as they were stared down by their opponent. She could kind of see why.

Ignored the intimidating metal mask, he was also covered in what had to be the heaviest scale armor she had ever seen. After all, there was no way that all of those razor sharp scales could possibly be part of his body. Right? Right?

To her and the rival gang's surprise a burst of fire came from seemingly nowhere, colliding with those in the front. She cringed and bit back a scream as their skin blackened and charred, those affected screaming and dropping to the floor to extinguish the flames in vain. Just as quickly the dragon man surged forth into the crowd, utterly decimating them as bullets bounced off that strange armor, cold red eyes taking in the scene impassively as he did his work. Wait, was he growing?

To her shock and horror he indeed was, now around nine feet and covered head to toe in what she now knew to be scales despite the impossibility. There was no way this could happen in real life, no matter how far science had come. Especially in a gang fight. Yet her she was, witness to what for all accounts was a slaughter as each of the opposing group died a bloody death engulfed by flames.

She couldn't take it anymore.

Taking a few steps back she collapsed to her knees and let loose the contents of her stomach, a small corner of her mind surprised that her stomach had any contents to let loose as her stomach continued to contract. Time seemed to warp and bend, becoming meaningless as the world narrowed down to herself, the cold stone floor and an ever growing puddle of bile as the ever growing smell of ashes came into her nose. At least it masked what was probably now the worse smell of the recently deceased.

The sound of a click brought her back into reality. A woman, probably of asian descent from what she could tell through her blurry vision, was holding up a cocked pistol aimed towards her head. She probably thought that she was one of them. This was it. She was going to die right here, not knowing even who she was all because of some stupid fight. Anger, sadness and something deep and primal began to awaken inside of her. It was all just a bad dream, none of this was real. Her reality didn't include crazy man dragon's, didn't have her with a pistol to her head as she kneeled on the ground.

The woman pulled the trigger.

But she refused.

In that moment, something white hot exploded from within her. Just as suddenly, her surroundings had changed. No longer was she on the floor of that building, but what seemed to be the rooftop of some sort of high rise building based on the whooshing sound of the wind and the twinkling of city lights below. It was silent, no conflict or any signs of the near death experience she just had.

Her head felt muddled. Almost as though she were almost unaware of her actions completely. She could probably fall right off that building right there and then and she wouldn't have even noticed until she hit the pavement. But something inside of her stopped her from doing that. "Survive." It whispered in her ear. "Your time has not come yet, confused one."

And so her eyes slowly became clear and lost their fogginess, and while her memories were stilled clouded and her body awkward she turned around and entered the stairwell. She had no choice but to walk forward at this point. Where else was there to go? And so she walked away, down the stairwell. Away from the darkness, away from her problems.

Away from reality.


End file.
